Season 2017 in the rearview mirror

Football Discussion Dustin Fletcher Hangar
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Essington dropping games to Carlton, Brisbane and a lesser extent Fremantle.
Limping into the final third of the year like always
Langford languishing in the 2s.
Francis treading water.
Jobe spending 80% of his games (at least) battling (at best) whilst Langford languished in the 2s.
Games to Howlett/Hocking/Stanton whilst Bird/Mutch/Langford played 2s.
Hurley getting found out (I hope not)
~ 23 games to Pops Kelly for nought effect on our future whilst Redman/Ridley/Morgan/whoever will play HBF for the next period played 2s.
Heppell stagnating/going backwards
Hartley went backwards
Travis Colyer
David Myers (WOW)
Playing Begley a month too late
Playing Redman/Mutch never.
Gameplan looking OK but also can be sorely lacking at times and found out/unsustainable at others
Limping into a final where we showed ZERO ticker and further betrayed our deep underlying cultural problems.

vs.

Joe came on
Orazio came on
McGrath = gun
Stewart slowly getting there.

Yes I’m ■■■■■■ about Saturday but still: 4/10 would not repeat

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Locks in a top 4 side
B:

HB: Hurley

C: Zerrett

HF:

F: Fantasia, Daniher,

R:

IC: Heppell

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That’s pretty…pretty lid on.

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Seeing a lot of 4s and 5s, the overall picture was we placed 7th with half our 22 not having played with the other half which meant ■■■■ all cohesion and coming off a ■■■■ 4 years. A number of individual awards which is nice. I’d say we have done very well from what has happened. If we finished around the 12th mark as most expected, would our rating have been a 1/10? I’m sensing a lot of ratings based on emotions of the result over the weekend. 7.5/10 for mine.

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I think most are posting their pre-season expectations.
If they finished where you expected them to, then you’re probably going to give a five or six.
I can certainly understand you giving 7.5 if you expected twelfth. But I don’t think many thought that was a median expected result, let alone most.
I didn’t see many (any?) 14th - 10th predictions at the start of the year.

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I’m so impressed with the amount of time and effort so many of you put into analysis. You ■■■■ on the footy journalists.

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In terms of the games we played, I think the bad aspects of the season were worse than the goods were great - epitomized by making a final on one hand, and the outcome of that final, on the other. I found our losses more gutting than I enjoyed our good wins, perhaps because I found some of our wins just as frustrating. But that just might be me. Analyzing it properly is something I don’t have the energy for at the moment.

So far as that simplistic and somewhat emotional approach: 4/10.

I don’t really know how to factor in the variables of returning players and cohesion - which nonetheless is what we’ll have to deal with in reverse next year anyway. I don’t ascribe to the idea that we should have gone full on development mode, any more than I really understood the way we actually approached it. Seemed a bit of a fence sitting approach - but neither will I pretend to know they answer. Some developments were obviously good, fwd line, especially, and some players in particular, but it will require another season to assess them in reality.

Our inability to defend/play the opposition rather than, “the way we want to play”, especially setting up around ball ups and throw ins, clearance situations, is our biggest flaw as a team. Saturday epitomized this. We had nothing, and they pranced around like… whatever. Don’t know if this is a culturally ingrained thing, because it seems more prevalent in the older players - and, or whether coaching could have fixed it in a year, or a particular game, I don’t know, either. Hopefully it’s something that will change with the relatively clean slates of the younger members of the team/list.

Will probably have to do this as an ongoing thing. Fairly lid on at the moment. Flat as a tack.

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Got to pull you up there mate. Have a listen to what McGrath thinks about James Kelly and what he’s done for him this year as a mentor and defacto on-field coach. Ridley and Redman are long-term prospects who have talent but I don’t think were ready for AFL. Morgan based on his VFL performances did not warrant senior selection, that is when he wasn’t injured.

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Woosha gets an 8, the men representing Woosha get a 6.
Lots of lame duck efforts from the likes of TBC, Francis, Myers, Long, Langford, Colyer, Morgan, Redman, Merret. Throw in injuries to Laverde, Ambrose, Brown, the benefit years to Stanton, Howlett, Hocking and the battlers like Bird and Dea didn’t make Woosha’s job any easier.
Looking forward to watching an Essendon list next year with an even fresher look to it.

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Saturday was certainly very disappointing. The only positive was that it was over so early so there was no need for reflecting on what could have been.

I am taking a more look forward approach. With regards to next year I hope we take the loss and use it as an absolute catalyst to improve everything about the club. Sydney along with Hawthorn and Geelong have set the benchmark over the last 10-12 years and we must strive to achieve and beat their results.

How to improve
• Build further on the culture – we are coming from a long way back given the issues encountered. By getting this right winning should become non-negotiable and we should start to attract the right players who improve us as club and as a team
• Increase our midfield depth – this was absolutely apparent against the Swans. I think we lack the cattle in two ways – just not enough quality and secondly the defensive mindset/mechanisms just aren’t there. We get flogged at clearances too often despite our ruckman winning or at least breaking even with hitouts most weeks. We are building a solid core but need a few more. Zac, Heppell , Parishand Zaha is a good start. Push McGrath in there who should also help with defensive side of things and find another kid. If we can snag a mid in the trade period it would be great. I would be going all in for Rockliff given he doesn’t cost us players or picks. After this we then need a couple of our current list to step up – from Langford, Mutch etc or one of our forwards like Fanta or Begley.
• Coaching structure – I think we need to freshen up with some younger talent. James Kelly seems like a good fit, but there is the difficulty in going from player to coach with the same guys. Also I would love to get a strategic guy in there to really help with our match day moves. On many occasions it seemed like we just went with Plan A. There might be reasons for this – like Whoosa trying to demonstrate what is needed, but from next year this shouldn’t be happening. Someone with a defensive focus – particularly around stoppages would be great. If we didn’t practice our kick ins as I’ve heard somewhere that is just dumb and it cost us the Sydney game.
• Get development right – if the likes of Langford, Laverde and Francis are not best 22 next year then something is going on. Clearly identifying talent is one thing but converting that into proven AFL performances is another. Top 20 picks need to be a given as making it, yet all 3 of these have question marks at the moment. Morgan and Redman are two others that need to come through, along with Ridley and Mutch. I also hold high hopes for Draper at the moment, but is still a few years off.
• Ensure our injury list this year wasn’t a one off. Until the last month of the season we had a great record. This must continue to happen.
• Work out our backline key position players – can we afford to play Hurls as an attacking defender given his size? I think we can, also I actually don’t think he did well when one on one this season, clearly showed on Saturday. Playing Hartley and Ambrose together looks difficult given they both don’t offer heaps the other way. Hartley seems to be a bit confused about his role at times and need to be instructed clearly what his role is, ie don’t let Buddy take a mark inside 50 (I would have moved him onto Buddy once he got the corkie as Ambrose was always going to be too short playing deep) rather than confusing his defensive mindset by emphasising the importance of attacking.
• Re-sign Conor McKenna – his speed and run through the lines is unique and he must hold onto him. He is our only real line breaker. Yes he still makes mistakes but he has hardly played the game and improved out of sight this season.

List Changes

Retire – Watson, Kelly, Stanton

Delist
o Eades – gone
o J Merrett – never looked like getting a game this year, only a two year deal kept him going this year
o Howlett – not the future
o Hocking – again not the future
o McKernan - if another decent ruckman can be found – too good for VFL but not good enough against the gun AFL ruckman. Can’t play as an AFL forward
o Bird - if we aren’t going to play him no need to keep him

Possibly delist
o Luenberger - if two decent ruckman can be found – just offers nothing around the ground
o Morgan - unless they believe his injuries have held him back
o Long - given he was never close to getting a go this year can they justify another season
o Dea – was shown to be nothing more than backup this year. Not big enough as a KP player and overtaken by Gleeson

Structural changes/priorities
• Inside beast to help with clearances
• Defensive mid who can attack – potentially McGrath’s role.
• Reduce Goddard’s role. Personally I would be happy to see him replace James Kelly down back for a year or two, supporting Gleeson as the intercept marker.
• Work to bring Draper on sooner given Bellchambers and Leunberger aren’t the answer as ruckman
• Need to replace Bags down back. McGrath helped this year but it is not a long term solution given we will need him in the middle. Not sure if McNiece is the man or if it is someone else.

Free Agency/Trade Period
• Throw our first rounder at Josh Kelly and a sweetener. If he decides to leave he will name his club so if it is us we just need to get the deal done.
• Attack free agency. Not much value left other than Rockliff and Trengrove from Port who could play a role in the ruck or down back
• Shop around Myers and Coyler to see if there is any interest. You would keep them for now given their age, but there are big question marks on them.
• Use Francis, Redman and any other unproven players as bait to get trades done. Unlikely to occur and if it did it is something which could bite us in the future. But we shouldn’t be afraid of this.
• Only chase Stringer if you are confident that there is a spot for him. At the moment I would prefer to invest otherwise including via the draft as I think our forward line was our most stable and best performed line this year.

Draft
• Assuming we hold onto a first rounder – best available mid. No 3rd forward or half back flanker type who may become a midfielder. They must be an out and out mid
• More mids with other picks
• Late/rookie pick on state league/delisted ruckman
• Potentially chase another KP player late – most likely a back

There were plenty of positives for the season and I am actually bullish but these are my thoughts on how to move forward.

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Like others here, I had really high hopes without having much clue how this season would unfold. Upgraded the family memberships and even bought one for my dad (returning his favour from 1982).

Call me a happy clapper but we did go from spoon to finals. Sure last year was an outlier, but we had to fit 2 different-shaped groups together and make one team. It could have been frighteningly worse.

Having said that, some of the best saga refugees seemed to be those that started with new clubs. Those that had already left- Melksham, Monfries, Crameri, did not star. Carlise, Ryder and Hibberd had better years. Did they feel freer because a new club wanted them despite the saga?

Making finals was magnificent- bombers spilling out over Woolhara (the suburb- we would never all fit in the pub), getting police escorts and stopping traffic on the way to the ground. Seeing and hearing Joey’s first goal in front of the biggest crowd ever at the SCG. I must have drifted off for a while because I can’t remember so much of the next bit. The final farewell for Jobe was good too- plenty of respect from swans supporters.

If the gloomers say we should’ve come 12th so we could have a clean out, they are wrong. We can and will have a clean out anyway. We got real send-offs for some loyal servants- remember the tears in the rooms after round 1? Early on the calls were loud to drop Hurley and Zaharakis. but persistence got results. Sure I would have liked to have seen some more youngsters play, and I am still not sure about the “don’t coach” coaching style. But to be ahead of most teams after 2016 is alright by me. 7.5/10.

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Essendon’s biggest plus for 2018 was that the forward line again looks dangerous. Something not seen since the days of Knights.

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Beating Sydney in Sydney in their current form you would only give us a 6.5?

Crikey.

You are on tough judge eh. Name a harder match and why?

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We knocked off Port/WCE/Geelong/Hawks on home games.
Should have beat Sydney with a quick run on playing our style.(just like they did to us on the weekend mind u except with contested footy, we were just to gutless to try the corridor once the damage was done to find out if we could mount a challenge)

And we dropped a few games due to inconsitency. Fitness and time together breeds that.

I give us a 7 based on circumstance.

I think we will have to be better next year to reach the 8 with a harder draw, but to also win finals footy. Earning a 7/10 again would be a home final and at least showing up to play a game at finals intensity.

Anything higher in 2018 is 2nd or 3rd week deep.

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I don’t know how anyone can give a failing score to a team that made finals.

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Of course.

But that bar is extremely low.

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It’s because people are idiots.

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Pass = those above the median.

In an 18 team competition, that means finishing above 9.

So far so average.

But…

Points can be taken off for e.g. losing to the wooden spooners, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory vs Shitney, and so on and so forth.

And not forgetting “Don like a dinner” (as the Rsoles at the Age put it) in even yet another further Elimination final elimination.

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Also, different teams are in different situations and different expectations attach accordingly. If geelong had finished 7th and gone out in a 10+ goal loss their season would have been a massive failure. If brisbane had finished 12th that would have been quite a good season from them. We won the spoon last year and I’d give it a better mark than several other seasons we’ve had over the last decade.

Otherwise really there’s one pass mark: winning the flag. Everything else is just degrees of failure.

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